A Meta-analysis of Acupuncture Treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

To assess the efficacy of acupuncture for treatment of irritable bowel syndrome through meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in recent 20 years. Online databases, including CNKI, VIP, WANFANG,PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Embase were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for IBS. Retrieval time was from January 1, 2000 to January 31, 2021. According to Jadad scoring criteria,the bias risk and quality assessment of each RCT included were evaluated by two researchers. RevMan 5.3 software was used for the meta analysis. Eight RCTs were selected which include a total of 1181 patients.The control group has 425 patients and the experimental group has 756 patients. The result of meta-analysis indicates that the total effective rate for the experimental group was superior to that of the control group [OR=3.29,95%CI [2.16~5.03](P<0.01)], and the funnel plot was basically symmetric. Acupuncture therapy is shown to have a good safety and compliance record. However, the number of high-quality trials is small, and there are some deficiencies in the methodology of clinical research. Acupuncture, as a supplementary therapy for irritable bowel syndrome, has positive clinical significance and prospects for application. The methodology of clinical research needs to be further improved.